New Bill Seeks to Ban Transportation of Crude Oil on Great Lakes

Published By : 24 Sep 2015 |Published By : QYRESEARCH

With a safety check of a derisive Straits of Mackinac-based pipeline on its way to happen this week, a legislation that requires a thorough review of the hazardous materials contained by pipelines in the Michigan area has been announced by United States senators of Michigan. This will result in the ban of transportation of crude oil by vessels cutting across the Great Lakes.

The bill was announced by the United States senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow on Wednesday. If the bill is passed, it will also make it necessary to assess the current status of the oil spill response plans that are levied in the Great Lakes and will force federal officers in considering an expanded new set of criteria for identifying the areas that are most vulnerable to being affected by an additional environmental risk, and will thus require higher standards for oil carrying pipelines in those regions, including the basin of the Great Lakes.

While no crude oil is being currently transported by vessels on the Great Lakes, the law will make one such prohibition in the federal law, turning back many plans of potentially shipping oil by tankers or barges across the area owing to limited capacity of pipelines.

Peters said that businesses are considering moving oil on the Great Lakes with the help of ships as an option.

Only this month, Enbridge, a Canadian energy company, and the State of Michigan reached an agreement that the company will continue its policy of not shipping heavy crude oil through its pipeline Line 5 present under the Straits of Mackinac, the area that separates Lake Huron and Lake Michigan even though the company believes that it does not present any imminent danger to the lakes’ environment.